Millennial Voice

Outfitted with beautiful rings of ice and dust, Saturn stands as one of the most iconic planets in our solar system. Along with Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, this celestial ornament works as a shield between Earth and too much bombardment by comets and asteroids.

The four gas giants of our solar system function as a team. As Hugh Ross explains in a Today’s New Reason to Believe article:

In order to adequately protect Earth from collision events without being gravitationally disturbed, the protection must come from not just one gas giant planet, but rather several.

In mythology, however, Saturn’s namesake was not the ideal team player.

As the Roman god of agriculture and harvest, Saturn (equivalent to the Greek Cronus) was part of a system of primordial deities who appeared in ancient cosmologies and functioned as ancestors to what the Greeks called the Olympians. At the request of his mother, Saturn usurped his father, but feared a prophecy that said he in turn would be supplanted by his own children. Consequently, Saturn ate each of his offspring as they were born. Not exactly father-of-the-year material. Despite his precautions, Saturn was over thrown by Jupiter, his sixth child, and fled to Rome where according to the story he reigned over the Golden Age, an era defined by universal harmony and pleasurable activity.

Romans celebrated Saturn’s sovereignty and abundant harvest with the annual Festival of Saturnalia held around the time of the Winter Solstice, usually December 17 – 23. The festival was marked by merry-making, food and drink, suspension of war and punishments and work, and gift-giving. Sound familiar?

Most of the Christmas traditions that we partake of today were derived from various pagan celebrations, such as Saturnalia (see here). It is because of this secular influence that Christmas has been a source of controversy in church history and in some cases today. Fortunately, the central point of Christmas remains the same regardless of how people choose to celebrate it.

When Christ came into the world, the angels proclaimed:

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. (Luke 2:14)

Though Saturn was honored as the ruler of paradise on Earth, as a mythological figure he can do nothing to bring peace to the world. The credit for paving the way for reconciliation between humans and God belongs solely to Jesus Christ, who also created the solar system’s ringed gem for his glory and our benefit.

Listen to “Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age” here.

Named after the king of the Roman gods, Jupiter is considered as a king of planets. Its enormous size, entourage of 63 moons, and gravitational power all befit a regal planet.

A planet like Jupiter requires delicate precision of mass and location in order to be beneficial, rather than detrimental, to life on Earth. Jupiter’s mass and distance from our own planet are listed in Hugh Ross’s book, The Creator and the Cosmos, as part of the evidence for fine-tuning of the galaxy and its various features to support life. Any variation to these characteristics in Jupiter would either cause catastrophic gravitational disturbance to Earth’s orbit or expose it to too many comets and asteroids.

While Jupiter the planet highlights the careful engineering efforts of the Creator, both Jupiter of Rome, and Zeus, his Greek equivalent, provide acute contrasts to the God of the Bible. In addition to ruling over the gods of Mount Olympus, Zeus is known for his infamous sexual trysts with immortals and mortals of all kinds. In fact, planet Jupiter’s four largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa, are all named after mythical mortals raped by Zeus in disguise.

As for Rome’s Jupiter, one website describes the ancient deity as “one of the most important of the Roman gods, continuously evolving with Roman needs.” Jupiter began as an agricultural deity, but as Rome grew more powerful, Jupiter transformed into the designated protector of the military-oriented empire’s capital city. Romans believed “he could be invoked through a variety of titles, each dependent on the responsibilities being requested of him.”

The Bible tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). The God of the Bible does not evolve to meet the demands and whims of his creatures. Neither can we invoke him, as though he were a genie. Rather, he is completely capable of tending to human needs without compromise to his identity and does so on his own perfect time. YHWH is less like Jupiter and more like Aslan, of whom Mr. Beaver says, “Course he isn’t safe, but he’s good.” The God of the Bible is not a tame idol, shaped in the image of man.

Fortunately, the God of the Bible is not like Zeus either, characterized by lust and deceitfulness. Scripture declares that “God is love” (1 John 4:16). Jesus is described as “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

Though an impressive planet like Jupiter has excited awe befitting a deity, the God of the Bible is the real King. Thankfully, he is not the whimsical, flawed product of human invention, but perfect in all his attributes, including his love for his creatures. Now that’s something to inspire jollity.

Listen to “Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity” here.

With the 2008 Olympics in Beijing just days away, it is appropriate that the next planet in this series derives its name from a mythological deity known for his own athleticism and patronage of mortal sportsmen. Mercury, messenger to the Roman gods, is easily recognizable, as is Hermes, the Greek deity from which Mercury was pilfered. Both versions feature winged-shoes and/or -cap and a caduceus, among other symbols. The Mercury movement from composer Gustav Holst’s suite The Planets reflects the character’s quick flight and activeness.

The planet Mercury is now officially the smallest planet in our solar system, and is also the closest planet to the sun. It shares some attributes with Earth’s moon, including its size and heavily cratered surface, but unlike Earth itself, it has no natural satellites and no substantial atmosphere.

Yet Earth and its distant neighbor do share some qualities in common. For example, Mercury has a magnetic field, albeit a very weak one compared to Earth’s. Mariner 10 made this discovery during its Mercury flybys in 1974 and 1975. The presence of a magnetic field challenged scientists’ previously held notions that Mercury, due to its size, had an iron core, as opposed to a molten one like Earth’s. Further research in 2002, using massive antennas to send radar signals to Mercury, showed that the planet wobbles slightly as it orbits the sun—which reinforces the evidence for a molten core. (See here and here for further discussion of these discoveries.)

Thanks to NASA’s own winged MESSENGER, launched four years ago, scientists have continued to unravel Mercury’s mysteries. Several articles from Science Daily report on some of MESSENGER’s discoveries during its first flyby of the planet January 2008 (see here, here, and here.) But why should we bother to study Mercury? What can this inconspicuous little orb tell us?

In a Science Daily article describing the discovery of Mercury’s wobbly orbit, Professor Jean-Luc Margot of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., explains that,

“The chemical composition of Mercury’s core can provide important clues about the processes involved in planet formation,”… “It is fundamental to our understanding of how habitable worlds—planets like our own—form and evolve.”

RTB’s Jeff Zweerink has pointed out that the shared characteristics between Earth and other planets, like Mercury, still help to highlight Earth’s uniqueness:

Further, planets containing water may be far more common than previously thought (water is the universe’s second most abundant molecule), as are planets that briefly exhibit geological activity such as plate tectonics and volcanism. However, the combination and durability of Earth’s water cycle, plate tectonics, and magnetic field generation 4.5 billion years after its formation strongly argues for supernatural intervention. (emphasis original)

Like Mars and Venus, Mercury serves to reinforce the exceptionality of Earth. Yet their similarities also help us gain a better understanding of the world we live in and its history, and, hopefully, expand our appreciation for the Creator who so lovingly engineered the planets.

Safe to say Batman has come a long way since the days of Adam West and Burt Ward. He’s cooler, tougher, and thank goodness he doesn’t wear spandex anymore. But in addition to giving up the tights and corny bat-gadgets, Batman has become darker.

The Dark Knight opened at 12:01 AM Friday morning, July 18. It’s the second installment in director/writer Christopher Nolan’s fresh take on the Batman franchise and it’s already being hailed as a masterpiece in the comic book and crime drama genres. “Masterpiece” may be slightly higher praise than this film deserves; I can’t help wondering if actor Heath Ledger’s tragic death earlier this year has influenced critics’ perceptions of the movie as a whole (Ledger’s individual performance is masterful).

Nolan’s brooding superhero flick definitely earns its PG-13 rating. The violence is brutal, the villains grotesque, and the tone gloomy. This incarnation of Batman’s (Christian Bale) encounter with the Joker (Ledger) abandons the fun quirkiness of Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman; instead it tackles serious questions about the true natures of morality and heroism.

Ledger’s brilliantly performed Joker does not ask for, or evoke, empathy. He doesn’t have a single sob story—he has several, each different from the one before. There’s no justifying his madness or sadistic behavior. To him, Gotham City is a giant toy, one that squirms and writhes under the pressure of evil. Joker is a devout moral relativist. As he explains to Gotham district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart),

I’m a dog chasing cars. I don’t have plans. I just do things. I’m not a schemer.

With villains it is tempting to look beyond their actions in search of a broken past or haunting trauma that morphed them into their current state. We want to feel sympathy for them—because that means they’re redeemable. Not the Joker. Ecclesiastes 8:8 explains that “wickedness will not release those who practice it.” The evil festering in Joker’s mind and soul is so complete it’s pure.

Joker desires anarchy, a world with no rules. He seeks to achieve it by destroying the moral codes of Gotham’s citizens and heroes. Story-tellers, particularly those dealing with superheroes, seem to show a penchant for pushing protagonists to their limits in terms of right-or-wrong. How far will Batman go to stop the Joker? Will he commit murder, rather than bring the madman under the justice of the law of the land? Who will he choose to save? Who will the civilians of Gotham choose to save—themselves or others?

1 Corinthians 15:33 reminds us, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’” Just minutes in the company of Joker reveals cracks in the moral armor of Batman and his allies. The vicious psychopath’s mutterings work like poison. But Scripture also provides a remedy: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Of course, no one in this movie even mentions God—except to use his name in vain—but this brings up an intriguing point.

All hopes are pinned on Batman to rescue Gotham from evil. Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred (Michael Caine) tells him,

You can be the outcast. You can make the choice that no one else will face—the right choice.

Batman can save people from other men’s evil intent, but he cannot save them from the consequences of the evil in their own hearts. Though superheroes, like Batman and Superman, are often touted as modern symbols for saviors, there’s been only one person in all of history that actually has the power to offer forgiveness of sins and salvation.

Jesus Christ blew the religious leaders of his day away when he forgave the sins of the paralytic in Capernaum. Mark writes that “some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ‘Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’”

But Jesus reminds them that “‘the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.’” Christ’s identity is paramount to his authority. He is God Incarnate and, thus, embodies God’s full power. Yet Jesus is also human. Kenneth Samples describes Christ’s unique identity in A World of Difference:

…Jesus Christ is therefore “two Whats” (a divine “what” [or nature] and a human “what” [or nature]) and “one Who” (a single “person” or “self”). As God Incarnate, Jesus retained all of his divine attributes through his divine nature, and yet through his human nature was fully human.

This is what makes Christ the perfect hero. His full divinity exclusively allows him the power to forgive humans of their sins and to “qualif[y] [them] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.”. But his full humanity allows him to relate to the suffering of people and to make a proper atoning sacrifice on mankind’s behalf.

Culturally, we’ve had a love affair with fallen heroes and antiheroes in our stories. We love to describe the fallen state as showing the characters’ humanity, it makes them more real. So, where does that leave Jesus? Does his sinless life make him less human and more divine? On the contrary, Jesus’ resistance against temptation and his perfect obedience to the law reveals him to be more human than we are. It exposes a righteousness that should have been ours, had we not thrown it away.

Because of Christ’s work on our behalf death has lost its sting. And that is the victory of the ultimate hero.

My sisters and I may have been raised in the same home, by the same parents, but we’ve each turned out different from one another.

Like human sisters that grow into distinctive individuals, “sister planets” Earth and Venus are radically different. They are nearly the same size (Earth is the bigger of the two) and study indicates that, like Earth, Venus was once covered by liquid water. But, current research shows two celestial bodies with drastically disparate environments.

But before modern science exposed the truth about Venus’s atmosphere and surface, the morning and evening star inspired humanity with its mysterious possibilities for millennia. The ancient Romans named the planet after their goddess of beauty, love, fertility, and femininity. Shukra, the planet’s name in Sanskrit, means “‘clear, pure’ or ‘brightness, clearness.’” “As one of the brightest objects in the sky,” Venus impacted the cultures of ancient civilizations around the world.

More recently, science-fiction authors imagined Venus as a possible second home for humans. C. S. Lewis’s tale of paradise preserved Perelandra envisioned Earth’s sister planet as a lush waterworld.

It is interesting to note that the ancient Greeks’ name for Venus’s dawn appearance, Phosphoros, which means “bringer of light,” was later translated into Latin as Lucifer, meaning “light bearer.” Like the fallen angel that bears the same name, the real Venus is barren and incapable of supporting life.

Far from being the pure beauty the ancients imagined, the second planet from the Sun is stopglobalwarming.org’s worst nightmare, come true. Venus is shrouded in a thick atmosphere that’s about 96.5% carbon dioxide. Due to Venus’s incredibly slow rotation rate(in Earth terms, it takes Venus approximately 243 times longer to complete a rotation), the planet’s surface lacks a sufficient magnetic field to protect it against solar winds.

Some researchers suspect that this exposure to solar winds and ultraviolet radiations is responsible for stripping Venus of the water it once held; the same fate awaits any water deposited on the planet by comets. Surface temperatures measure at a balmy 800^oF. Makes these southern California heat waves look like winter in Michigan.

Like Mars, Venus exposes a sharp contrast between reality and imagination. With the Red Planet the contrast is between the hope with which we explore it and the malevolence we ascribe to it in fantasy. In Venus’s case, the difference is between the planet’s hellish, hostile environment and the attributes of beauty, purity, and love assigned to it in myth.

Intriguingly, where Venus fails our expectations, Christ, the Creator of the planets, endures. Venus is hostile, not peaceful, but the Bible describes Christ as “a prince of peace.” Venus houses a hell-like world, not love, but Christ is love. Christ is the true “bright morning star.”

Listen to “Venus, the Bringer of Peace” here.

Possible-Spolier Alert

Just taking a break from the planets series to review Disney and Pixar’s WALL-E.

Being a huge Pixar fan, I went to see WALL-E with high expectations. After all, this is the ninth film from a production company that’s been on an unbroken streak of success since the release of Toy Story in 1995. Thirteen years later Pixar is still at the top of their game with WALL-E.

This latest star in the Pixar galaxy follows the adventures of the titular trash-compacting robot. He represents the last vestige of an attempt to clean up the massive amounts of trash that have rendered Earth unsuitable for life (save for Wall-E ‘s pet cockroach). It’s been 700 years since the humans left their shamelessly abused home planet; in the meantime, Wall-E has developed a personality. Like a magpie, he squirrels away any bits of “trash” that he deems valuable (he tosses a diamond ring in favor of the velvet box it came in).

Wall-E ‘s loneliness is expressed through his fascination with a love scene from his old VHS recording of Hello, Dolly!. He longs to hold hands with someone. That someone arrives on Earth in the form of Eve, a sleek, egg-shaped probe droid sent to check the planet for signs of life. It’s love at first sight for Wall-E.

About thirty minutes into the film the adventure officially, and literally, takes off when Wall-E stows away on the spaceship that has returned for Eve. She’s carrying a tiny, fragile plant specimen that Wall-E gave her and it will end up being the key to returning life to Earth. Once on board the Axiom, an intergalactic luxury liner housing the remnants of humanity, Wall-E ‘s hapless efforts to reunite with Eve sets off a chain of events that jolts the rotund, infantile, technology-dependant humans to fulfill their original purpose as the caretakers of Earth.

I didn’t expect WALL-E to be as successful as the Pixar chef-d’oeuvre Finding Nemo nor did I find its message as poignant as that of Ratatouille; however, there is a beauty about WALL-E that still sets it high above the average family entertainment.

Like other Pixar offerings, this film pushes the envelope, not in terms of crudeness, but in terms of subject, characters, and intelligence. With hardly any dialogue, WALL-E plays like a tribute to the silent films from the early days of cinema, particularly the comedy of Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton. Imagine, in an age where kids can’t sit still for five seconds, making your target audience sit though a half-hour exposition that takes its time developing a lone protagonist who can’t utter more that a handful of words. Daring indeed. It’s refreshing to see kids’ films that expect more from their viewers than a few giggles at a bodily function joke.

WALL-E sends an intriguing message about what it means to be human. It celebrates humanity’s potential for creativity, resourcefulness, playfulness, and love. At the same time, it warns us against some of our vices: gluttony, laziness, indifference, and apathy. While the humans in the movie represent an unsatisfactory future, Wall-E provides a contrast. He yearns for the privileges of humanity, namely relationships. He shows curiosity and wonderment (I can’t forget the scene where he touches Saturn’s rings). He represents what we can, and should, be. In the end, he inspires the humans he interacts with to reach for their full potential.

From a Christian perspective, it seems that the humans in WALL-E have flouted the tasks that God gave them in Eden: to rule over the earth and to marry and procreate. Wall-E, both through his reverence for creations (God-made and manmade) and his relationship with Eve, reiterates the fundamental goodness of those mandates.

October 30, 1938. Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. Martians attack, laying waste to the countryside and spreading mass panic. The masterminds behind it all: Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air at the CBS radio studio in New York City.

Seventy years later, Welles’ legendary broadcast of H. G. Wells’ science-fiction classic, The War of the Worlds, is “arguably the most well-known radio dramatic production in history,” and, consequently, perhaps the most famous tale of an invasion from Mars.

Named for the Roman god of war, the Red Planet is frequently depicted as the source of malevolent aliens bent on taking over Earth (Mars Attacks! is my personal favorite). But in reality, it represents one of our greatest hopes in space exploration.

On May 25, 2008, NASA’s Phoenix lander successfully landed on Mars. It is part of a long line of machines sent to the fourth planet from the Sun in search of liquid water (or traces of it) and any other hints that Mars may have once harbored life.

RTB scholars Dave Rogstad and Fuz Rana will address the subjects of water and/or life on Mars in their TNRTBs on June 27 and July 3, respectively. Many scientists hope that any remnants of life discovered on Mars will provide a naturalistic explanation for the spontaneous origin of life on Earth. Dave, however, postulates that it is just as easy for life to have been transferred from Earth to Mars via dislodged meteorites. And although Mars did contain liquid water at one time, Fuz points to recent research that says that water may have been far too salty for life to survive.

What intrigues me about our interaction with Mars is the contrast between the eagerness with which we vicariously explore it for opportunities and the terror and violence attributed to it in our stories. Throughout fiction the Red Planet lives up to its namesake; even the Greek names of its two moons, “Phobos (panic/fear) and Deimos (terror/dread),” conjure up less-than-encouraging images. And despite the hope of the NASA explorations, in present reality Mars is as unsympathetic towards indigenous life as Wells’ Martians are to Earth life.

Wikipedia explains that several factors beyond the absence or saltiness of liquid water on Mars make that planet unfit for life.

Mars orbits half an astronomical unit beyond this [the habitable] zone and this, along with the planet’s thin atmosphere, causes water to freeze on its surface….the planet has little heat transfer across its surface, poor insulation against bombardment and the solar wind, and insufficient atmospheric pressure to retain water in a liquid form…Mars is also nearly, or perhaps totally, geologically dead…

To me, this bleak picture of a vacant planet provides an ideal backdrop for our own gloriously lush home world. Contrasted against the emptiness of Mars, Earth’s uniqueness shines all the brighter.

Listen to “Mars, the Bringer of War” here.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us that “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” I know there is “a time to mourn and a time to dance;” what I didn’t fully realize until this week is that, sometimes, these activities overlap.

In the past few days my family celebrated a plethora of events—graduations, reunions, a milestone wedding anniversary. And in the midst of our joy, death unexpectedly appeared among our extended family.

This intersection of mourning and dancing put me in a reflective mood as I listened to a classical radio station during the drive home. Gustav Holst’s famous suite, The Planets, suddenly came to mind. From there my thoughts wandered over the significance of our galactic neighbors. Each planet, from Mercury to Pluto, holds a place in our mythologies and in our understanding of the cosmos.

Following this thread, I will be exploring the planets’ importance, culturally and astronomically, for the next nine weeks. Pluto will be included. I know it’s been demoted to dwarf planet, but I grew up seeing Pluto on the planet posters at school, so it doesn’t seem right to leave it out.

Taking my cue from Holst, I will start with Mars, “the Bringer of War,” next week.

Note: Any discussion of a planet’s namesake or astrological significance is not meant as an endorsement of astrology, but rather as a study of the planet’s place in human culture.

Cell phones presented quite a problem at my house. Between the four women in the family, our monthly allotment of talk time and text messages evaporated quicker than a puddle in the Mojave Desert. My poor dad tried several tactics to cut the cell phone usage down to the bare minimum. Something must have worked because I haven’t seen a shameful phone bill posted on the refrigerator door in months. But no matter what medium we use, Mom, Lauren, Jamie, and I love to chat.

To me, the human capacity for speech is one of the most incredible phenomena in the natural world. Other creatures communicate solely for survival purposes, but we can communicate to express and discuss abstract ideas, such as emotions, philosophy, and mathematics. And not only can we use language orally, we can write it down, too. Written language affords us a connection to our past that no animal will ever enjoy.

But are we truly the only creatures on Earth who possess language? Did hominids like Neanderthals have the genetic capability to communicate the way humans can? In recent years, scientists have explored this possibility in relation to the FOXP2 gene, which is closely linked to human language capacity and development (earning it the title of “language gene”). Fuz Rana has followed the story of Neanderthals and the FOXP2 gene in several TNRTBs, including:

1. A discussion of the idea of human-Neanderthal interbreeding;
2. A two-part series on the language gene and Neanderthals, (see here and here);
3. And a report on the reassessment of a FOXP2 gene recovered supposedly from a sample of Neanderthal DNA.

Throughout his analysis of the possibility of language in Neanderthals, Fuz continually reiterates that “since the hominids were not made in God’s image, they are expected to be clearly distinct from modern humans, particularly in their cognitive capacity, behavior, ‘technology’ and ‘culture.’”

Scientific advance continues to affirm that distinction. So while Neanderthals seem chatty on TV commercials, the gift of gab appears reserved for humans. Next time my dad pulls out an alarming cell phone bill, I think I’ll say, “Hey Dad, it’s an image-of-God thing.”

From exotic tales of treasure-hunters to intriguing History Channel documentaries, archaeology has long captured the public imagination. Of course, digging for ancient artifacts never looked better than when it involved Indiana Jones.

Indy, complete with dusty fedora and bullwhip, has returned to the big screen after a 19-year hiatus in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. As always, his adventures take him out of the hushed environs of the classroom and library and into the dark and dangerous world of the antiquated and the paranormal. Bad guys are never far behind and one never knows what mythological power is waiting to be unleashed.

The legendary, mysterious nature of ancient civilizations, in addition to romanticized folklore of modern times, lends archaeology a mythical status. In reality, the fieldwork in archaeology is much less eventful than Indy’s escapades—but its results much more poignant.

Archaeology as we know it is a relatively new practice. According to Randall Price, author of The Stones Cry Out, “The earliest ‘archaeologists’…were grave robbers who plundered the tombs of antiquity…in search of buried treasure.” The quest for ancient relics began primarily as a mercenary profession focused on “fortune and glory.” Gradually, it morphed into a science concerned with preserving history, rather than destroying it.

When the word “archaeology” first appeared in the 1600s, it was in association with ancient Israel and the Bible. Prices states, “From the beginning, the idea of archaeology was linked to the Bible,” but eventually its umbrella extended to include other civilizations and time periods, and biblical archaeology became its own branch of study.

Although the Ark of the Covenant has yet to be rediscovered outside of Hollywood, archaeology provides important keys to the Bible’s historical accuracy and context, and our interpretation of its original languages. Price claims this field’s purpose, as regards Scripture, is “to confirm, correct, clarify, and complement the Bible’s theological message.” It confirms our understanding of God’s word and corrects us when we have interpreted something incorrectly. It also clarifies our vision of the civilizations described in the Bible, particularly ancient Israel. And it also complements Scripture by filling in blank spaces and expanding information in areas where the Bible does not elaborate.

However, Christians must not assume that archaeology proves the validity of the Bible’s truth-claims and spiritual messages. To begin with, the actual amount of artifacts recovered is small compared to the areas that remain unexplored due to lack of funding and personnel, and political tensions. More importantly, however, it is essential to remember that archaeology is about history, not theology. As Indy himself puts it in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, “Archaeology is the search for fact, not truth.”

Price puts it another way, “While archaeology is of great help to the understanding of the Bible, those who use archaeology with this purpose in mind must avoid using material evidences to critique the authenticity or accuracy of the Bible.”

When I asked RTB apologist and author Krista Bontrager about this, she said, “What we can say is that the stories of the Bible have historical ‘support’ and ‘corroborate’ with Scripture. We just want to avoid words like ‘prove’ and ‘authenticate.’”

The facts of archaeology support the truth of Scripture, but in the end, “it must be remembered that the Bible itself is our finest example of an archaeological document.” Archaeology functions best, as Price puts it, “as a handmaiden to the Bible,” illuminating our interpretations of language, thoughts, and customs.

For further information on the Bible and archaeology, see Alfred J. Hoerth’s Archaeology and the Old Testament.